Chapter Three--Abide, Abuldantly

Lesson Three

ABIDE, ABUNDANTLY

Abide

The Greek word for "abide" is meno. Of the 112 passages in which it occurs in the New Testament, sixty-six arc found in the writings of John (forty in the gospel, twenty-three in 1 John, and three in 2 John). In classical Greek it means "stay, remain, stand one's ground, stay at home tarry." In the Koine it carries the same basic meaning: "remain, continue." Illustrative of this meaning are the following quotations trans-lated from the papyri: "for I have no leisure to remain longer," "the aforesaid lease shall continue secured to you," "the lease in all its pro-visions remaining valid," and "in order that the hay of Theoxenis may not remain too long uncut." In the New Testament meno means "live, dwell , lodge, remain with someone, of someone who does not leave the realm in which he finds himself, continue, abide, wait for." See Luke 19:5; Acts 27:31; John 7:9; Acts 21:7; Matthew 10:11; Acts 28:16; John 19:31; 2 Corinthians 3:14; Acts 20:5; John 3:36.

Meno is a favorite term of John to denote an inward, enduring per-sonal fellowship:

1. It denotes the enduring communion or fellowship between God and Christ. Jesus said, ". . . the Father abiding in me doeth his works. Be-lieve me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me" (John 14:10-11).

2. It denotes the enduring communion or fellowship between the faithful Christian and the Godhead. Jesus said to His disciples, "A bide in me, and I in you" (John 15:4). John wrote, "If that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye shall abide in the Son, and in the Father (1 John 2:24); "And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments abideth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he gave us" (1 John 3:23-24). See John 6:56; 1 John 4:12-15.

3.  

The perfect willingness and ability of Deity to remain with the Christian is unquestionable and undeniable. God has promised, "I will in no wise fail thee, neither will I in any wise forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). Jesus has promised, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" (Matthew 28:20). The desire of Deity is to permanently abide with the Christian--not for days, not for weeks, not for months, not for years, but forever! And what is your desire in the matter? Do you truly want to abide with Deity forever? That is a question of profound and practical significance to be answered by everyone who calls himself a child of God, a Christian. Deity will not forsake you, but will you forsake Deity?

The primary reason why many of those who consider themselves Chris-tians do not remain, meno, with Christ during all the varied circumstances of life is that they have never been truly converted to Him; for true con-version always, without exception, involves the sincere, sober, serious intention to remain with Christ forever. Many who consider themselves members of "the church you read about in the Bible" live their lives unrelated to Christ and His will because they have never soberly counted the cost of discipleship and thus have never met that cost in a life con-tinually devoted to Christ. Many of them were baptized while they were on an emotional binge, having come forward with others during the sing-ing of an invitation song as part of a chain reaction caused by the bombastic persuasion of some powerful exhorter. But when their emotional binge was over, their interest in the things of religion was also over.

However, one who is truly converted to Christ, with the sincere inten-tion of paying the price of discipleship whatever sacrifices it may entail, who gratefully remembers his redemption by the grace, mercy, and merits of Christ, will truly abide in or continue with Christ--not for days, not for weeks, not for months, not for years, but forever!

Note some of the profound significance of abiding in Christ:

3. 1. Abiding in Christ means fruit bearing. Christ, the true vine, is the power of fruit bearing, and it is only as the branches, His disciples, abide in Him that they can receive this power. The Master said, "Abide in me , and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing" (John 15:4-5). The conclusion of this utterance is emphatic: "apart from me ye can do nothing." Successful, fruitful Christian living depends on the Christian's personal relationship with Christ. Dependence on Christ for fruit bearing most assuredly does not set aside His will, but those who seek to live as they ought by being law-centered rather than Christ-centered are bound to fail. Preaching or teaching that is law-centered rather than Christ-centered is powerless, entirely incapable of building up the Christian in the most holy faith. Cf. Ephesians 3:14-20; 1 Corinthians 2:2; 1 John 2:6.

3. 2. Abiding in Christ means loyalty to His word. The person who abides in Christ, who depends on His power for fruit bearing to the glory of God, faithfully applies himself to the study and obedience of the Lord's word. "But abide thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them" (2 Timothy 3:14); "I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the evil one" (1 John 2:14). See 2 John 1:9. The Lord said, "Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you" (John 15:14).

3. Abiding in Christ means an efficacious prayer life. Jesus declared, "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you" (John 15:7). Since Christ our high priest is the only access we have to God and His grace (John 14:6; John 14:13-14; John 16:23; Hebrews 4:14-16), it is obvious why we must abide in Him and be loyal to His word if we would find the answer to our prayers. Cf. Proverbs 15:29; James 5:16; 1 John 3:21-22.

4. Abiding in Christ means abiding in His love. The person who abides in Christ, who is thus loyal to His word, enjoys the assurance that he abides in the love of Christ, to constantly enjoy the blessings involved in that love. The Lord promised, "If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (John 15:10). To abide in the pure love of Christ is to enjoy the highest blessedness that life can give. To abide in the pure love of Christ--not only in His love of compassion for the Christian as a human being, but also in His love of satisfaction and approval for the Christian's fidelity--is to abide in the sure hope of the blessedness that awaits the Lord's disciples in the Father's house.

5. Abiding in Christ means fullness of joy. "These things have I spoken unto you," said Jesus, "that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full" (John 15:11). In its context this utterance tacitly affirms that fullness of joy is the natural result of abiding in Christ. One who has constant fellowship with Christ, who thus obeys His commandments and offers effectual prayers, who constantly abides in his love, experiences the great joy of walking in heavenly sunlight. See Php 4:4.

This promise of joy Christ gives to His faithful disciples is an indirect rebuke to those of the world who believe that joy and religion are not associated, that where the one is the other is not. Worldly people have confused joy with mere enjoyment. The former can only come through surrender to Christ and submission to His will. It is more than skin-deep. It is a deep-seated emotion that permeates the soul, not the mere excite-men or enjoyment that arises from transient earthly pleasures. It is cer-tainly true that the joyless, grim, harassed, anxious lives of some who call themselves Christians are lives that do not make their home with Christ.

Abundantly

One of the great texts of the New Testament that portrays the wonder-ful blessings to be found in Christ is John 10:10, "The thief cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." If we can grasp at least some of the meaning of the Greek word perissos, translated as "abundantly" in this passage, we will enhance our understanding of the spiritually rich life Jesus gives to those who abide in Him.

In classical Greek perissos basically means "exceeding the usual num-ber or size, above measure, more than average, above the others, uncom-mon, unusual, extraordinary, remarkable (of that which is usually encountered among men), abundant, profuse, have something in abundance." This meaning is found also in the Koine. In Romans 3:1 Paul asks , "What advantage (perisson) then hath the Jew?", literally meaning , "What then is the superiority of the Jew?" There was something the Jew had that was extraordinary or uncommon in comparison with what other people had. And Jesus is saying in John 10:10 that the life the Christian possesses in Him is over and above that of others, a life that is extra-ordinary, uncommon, or unusual in comparison with the life of those who have yet to surrender themselves to Him.

The abundant life the Christian enjoys in contrast to the simple, bare existence of the sinner is indeed an extraordinary, uncommon life. Jesus exclaimed, "He that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me , hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life" (John 5:24). The life designated here as "eternal" has its beginning in this world, simultaneously when the true believer in Christ has passed out of death, the state of sin, into the new spiritual life in Christ. See Romans 6:3-4; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 John 3:14. How different this life is from the state of one who is dead in sin, who thus faces eternal condemnation! What supremely greater blessings the faithful Christian enjoys than the sinner! "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3); "And in Him [Christ] ye are made full, who is the head of all principality and power" (Colos-sians 2:10); "For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's" (1 Corin-thians 3:21-23). Cf. Psalms 34:10.

The New English Bible renders John 10:10, "I have come that men may have life, and may have it in all its fullness." Sinners who blatantly boast of "living it up," of enjoying life to the very hilt, cannot possibly, remotelyreallycomprehendlive,tolivelifewhatinitmeansits to fullness. Yet the principal argument they make against the religion of Christ is that it offers a less abundant life than theirs. How utterly wrong they are! To the question, "Is life really worthy living?," the faithful Christian can give a resounding, "Yea, verily!" Having escaped from the corruption of the world, he enjoys all things that pertain unto life and godliness, becoming a partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:3-4). He continually enjoys the living hope of the heavenly fruition of his life with Christ (Colossians 3:3-4).

In both classical Greek and in the Koine, the word perissos also means "superfluous, unnecessary, excessive, more than necessary." This meaning is illustrated in the following quotations translated from the papyri: "more than enough has been written," "I count it superfluous to write you at greater length," "if you find any purchasers of the surplus donkeys , get rid of as many as three." This meaning is also found in the New Testament: "For as touching the ministering of the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you" (2 Corinthians 9:1).

Is this particular meaning of perissos unrelated to the abundant life given by Christ? Not at all. In the literal sense, of course, the life the Lord gives his followers is not "superfluous, unnecessary, excessive, more than necessary." But figuratively speaking this definition well describes the superabundance of the blessings of Christ, such an abundance as would seem more than necessary from the human standpoint. This is the very idea David had in mind when he exclaimed, contemplating the rich-ness of the blessings he received from God, "My cup runneth over" (Psalms 23:5). This idea is further expressed in Luke 6:38, "Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together ,running over, shall they give into your bosom." See Proverbs 3:9-10.

The superabundance of the blessings of God in the life of the faithful Christ is beautifully described in Ephesians 3:20, where the writer uses the Greek huperekperissou, literally meaning "beyond all measure": "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." When the Christian seriously contemplates the exceeding abundance of life he enjoys in Christ, his sense of personal unworthiness makes him realize that he receives from the divine bounty far more than he can ever possibly deserve, so that he too can exclaim, "My cup runneth over."

Each Christian needs to constantly keep before him the penetrating question: Is my life really extraordinary or uncommon in comparison with the life of the sinner? Yes, we all need to see our lives for what they really are, to know in what ways they really differ from the lives of those who make no pretense at all of following Christ.

The real difference between the daily lives of many church members and the lives of those of the world is negligible. And it is especially lamentable that some who claim to be followers of Christ live less rich, full, and meaningful lives than many who have no religious convictions at all. The punctilious scribes and Pharisees meticulously kept certain rituals of religion, yet Jesus warned his disciples: "For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:20).

In the latter part of the fifth chapter of Matthew the Lord discusses the gracious, loving treatment His disciples are to extend to their enemies. This is an extraordinary, remarkable characteristic and distinguishes faithful Christians from people of the world. Indeed, it is this out-of-the-ordinary trait that portrays them as true sons of God. "Ye have heard that it was said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy: but I say unto you, Love your enemies, and pray for them that persecute you; that ye may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. . . . And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more (perisson) than others? do not even the Gentiles the same?" (verses 43-45, 47). The New English Bible renders perisson in this passage as "extraordinary": "And if you greet only your brothers, what is there extraordinary about that?"

The abundant life given by Jesus involves not only the responsibility for extraordinary living, but also the power for such living (2 Corinthians 9:8; Ephesians 3:20; Php 2:12-13). Those baptized believers whose lives are commonplace and ordinary, who essentially live no differ-ently from the average person of the world, are spiritually powerless people.

The extraordinary, unusual, happy quality of the abundant life in Christ is the influence of the Christian to incite men to accept Christ as their Saviour. It is the radiant light they let shine in the world to lead others to glorify God (Matthew 5:16). Only those who stand out in the crowd, so to speak, whose lives are made conspicuous by love , kindness, sympathy, and good works can influence others to seek the abundant life in Christ.

Questions

• What is the meaning of meno, abide, in both classical Greek and the Koine?

• Discuss thoroughly the word "abide" as it is used in the New Testament to denote an inward, enduring fellowship.

• Discuss some of the profound significance of abiding in Christ.

• What is the basic meaning of perissos in both classical Greek and the Koine?

• In what ways is the life of the faithful Christian extraordinary or uncommon in comparison with the life of the sinner?

• How does the secondary meaning of perissos as "superfluous, unneces-sary, etc." apply to the abundant life in Christ?

• Discuss the extraordinary, abundant Christian life as the Christian's influence to lead sinners to the Saviour.

• Is your life really extraordinary or uncommon in comparison with the life of the sinner?